Solaro Shades Making An Impact At Every Level Of Baseball

Boston Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu will soon sport a special-edition pair of Abreu 1 Solaro Shades sunglasses. Dalton Mauldin of the Savannah Bananas will have his own colorway, too. They come on the heels of the 16-month-old brand already rolling out special colorways for Mauricio Dubon of the Houston Astros and Nolan Schanuel of the Los Angeles Angels, all part of the plan from Solaro Shades to make what they call a high-quality affordable pair of sport sunglasses aimed at both the baseball and softball markets.

“Parents are already sending little Timmy to the plate with $1,200 worth of equipment, and the last thing they want is a $200 pair of sunglasses,” Jesse Haynes, Solaro Shades co-founder, tells Baseball America. “We want to lower the barrier of entry to the game with a lower price point. The sunglasses have the same quality and craftsmanship as premium brands, they come from the same factory, but with a lower price.”

Haynes, a marketing consultant, partnered with Mark Paul, a baseball comedian with a following of about 750,000 across all his platforms who regularly headlines entertainment at travel ball tournaments, to launch the new company in March 2023. The most popular model, the white and blue Cosmos Glacier Frost, is a $70 offering.

The pair crafted sport sunglasses—an Olympic cyclist is also wearing them—but focused on baseball because of Paul’s ties to the industry. The company also crafted a specially designed softball frame, working with multiple players to ensure it fit the shape of female faces.

Haynes says that beyond the same quality and craftsmanship as the premium brands at a much lower price point, another major competitive advantage for the Tulsa-based company is borrowed from the cycling industry: Multiple lenses come with every pair of sunglasses. Solaro Shades currently offers five lenses: a primary color lens to match the frame, a lens for night play, a polarized lens, a clear safety lens and a mirrored lens. Solaro Shades also announced on Sept. 4 a new two-in-one frame where the bottom of the frame snaps off, allowing players to wear the glasses as a closed or open frame.

With the tech specs and business-side dialed in—the brand features a limited lifetime guarantee that includes a replacement of the first pair bought with no questions asked—the growth of the company has largely come thanks to a growing excitement over the product at every level. Solaro Shades started in the travel ball space thanks to Paul attending so many tournaments each year, but with his following, Major League Baseball players were soon taking notice and reaching out to Paul asking for pairs.

One of those players was Dubon. The player and the brand did a special colorway tribute in a nod to his Honduran roots, with 10% of the sales donated to a nonprofit in his hometown. From there, Haynes says, baseball agents were taking notice and reaching out.

“If these guys are wearing our glasses, let’s do a custom limited drop,” Haynes says. “That is the direction that we hope to take.”

And that’s how the Abreu design materialized. He’s been wearing the product for a year, but Haynes says they wanted to “do something with you and say thanks.” The Abreu 1 shades launch Sept. 27. Solaro gives the players an option to take a cut of the sales themselves or donate them to a charity of their choice.

And as the collaborations grow (Solaro also partnered with Stinger Sports on two projects), teammates often take notice and start wearing pairs, as well, as is the case with the Red Sox and a range of Savannah Bananas players ahead of the Mauldin colorway. While MLB and top Division I college players wearing Solaro Shades certainly gives the company credibility, Haynes says the focus is still on providing a lower-cost option to the travel ball player. “We only work with athletes I would want my 12-year-old to look up to,” Haynes says, joking that as a 27-year-old he doesn’t have a 12-year-old himself. “We work with really good dudes in the game.”

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